Taking another look at the nominees for the 2015 ENnie Awards, here’s one from the Best Supplement Category.

There are places far beyond the familiar bounds of Earth. Some lie twinkling in the distant starfields, waiting to be discovered by intrepid explorers or conquered by legions of space marines. Others are just around the corner in time, a near future where hovertanks race across blasted battlefields, cyberware replaces organic limbs, and robots serve humanity—or attempt to annihilate it.

The Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion contains new races, Edges and Hindrances, Setting Rules, gear, cyberware, and numerous strange creatures from across the galaxy. It also includes detailed but simple rules for players and Game Masters to create their own robots, power armor, vehicles, starships, walkers and more to travel to the stars…and beyond!

Hungry for something more beyond a small handful of possible character types and only three levels of experience, we of the first wave of D&D fans eagerly grabbed copies of the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook off of whatever shelves we could find them on. What is now called First Edition (or 1e) changed everything about gaming, taking it from a very minor blip in the hobby game culture to a phenomenon that continues to grow decades later.

You can now grab a PDF of this historic and still-entertaining set of rules. Just take a look at all the tables!

The 1st Edition Player’s Handbook is back!

No more searching through stacks of books and magazines to find out what you need to know. The Player’s Handbook puts it all at your fingertips, including: All recommended character classes: Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, Magic-Users, and more.

Character Races: Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Orcs, Humans, and more.

Character Level Statistics.

Equipment lists with costs.

Spell listings by level and descriptions of effects (including many new spells!).

As a dungeon adventurer or Dungeon Master, you will find the contents of this book to be what you have been waiting for. All useful material is now compiled under one cover, especially for players!

Product History

Players Handbook (1978), by Gary Gygax, was the first book of rules for the AD&D game. It was published in June 1978 and seen by many for the first time at Gen Con XI (August 1978).

Moving Toward AD&D. The D&D game began with the OD&D box (1974), which was expanded with four supplements (1975-1976) and additional articles in The Strategic Review (1975-1976). However, by the time that Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry(1976) was published, TSR had already decided that the system — which now spanned a half dozen books and several newsletters — needed to be unified and cleaned up.

A new Basic D&D (1977) came out first, thanks to the singular efforts of J. Eric Holmes, but it was just an introductory book, intended to shepherd new players through the first three levels of play. What D&D really needed was a revamped game for the more advanced players: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

The AD&D system technically began with Monster Manual (1977) in December 1977. This compendium of monsters showed off the increased detail that would be present in the new AD&D game, but it didn’t give much hint at the game mechanics. That would await the publication of the AD&D Players Handbook (1978) six months later.

Despite the publication of AD&D, Gygax claimed that the original “D&D will always be with us”. He thought that OD&D and AD&D served different audiences, and that there was no reason to retire the original. OD&D did indeed remain available into the ’80s. Afterward, later editions of Basic D&D (1981, 1983) picked up the mantle of OD&D as the simpler and looser D&D game.

Another choice from the ENnie Awards Nominees, this one being one of the choices for Product of the Year. Evil Hat and Shannon Appelcline did a fantastic job of encapsulating the history and journey of our unique and intriguing hobby, with a focus on the people who made it happen.

PART ONE OF A FOUR-VOLUME SET!

EVERYTHING YOU’VE WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF ROLEPLAYING GAMES…

Designers & Dragons: The ’70s is a comprehensive picture of the beginnings of the RPG industry. This second edition expands the original single book into a series of four, and we’ve added over 50,000 new words to this volume alone. Learn about the colorful history of TSR and the wave of D&D inspired games (and gaming companies) to follow, and dip your toes into wargaming trivia. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.

In this volume, you’ll find:

A foreword by Greg Stafford, creator of Glorantha and author of King Arthur Pendragon

One thing you can say for certain about Shadowrun’s 5th Edition – there is absolutely no lack of ongoing support for it. The latest book, Chrome Flesh, delves into the many ways you can augment your runner.

EDGE OF THE POSSIBLE

Shadowrunners cannot be limited by what their bodies can—or cannot—do. They have to do more, stretch farther, surpass any limits, and accomplish the impossible. Some runners can rely on magic; for everyone else, there are augmentations. From shiny chrome that makes your body into a humanoid semitruck to genetech that alters you at the most fundamental level to drugs and chemicals that give you a quick and dirty boost, Chrome Flesh provides dozens of new ways to alter Shadowrun characters and make them better, stronger, faster, and altogether readier to kick ass and take names on the streets.

Along with the gear and a compiled table of all cyberware, bioware, genetech, and nanotech currently available in Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, Chrome Flesh covers how runners break down and what resources can help fix them up, and where augmentation tech might go in the future. It’s paydata every shadowrunner needs if they want to overcome everything the Sixth World is going to throw at them.

We’re going to end the week with another ENnie Award Nominee, this one in the Best Monster/Adversary Category.

The 13th Age Bestiary introduces all-new creatures for the 13th Age roleplaying game, plus surprising takes on some of your favorite monsters. It includes the fun and flexible mechanics you expect from 13th Age – and it makes every monster an adventure in its own right, with story hooks, icon relationships, customisable campaign elements and more advice on building exciting battles.

Because we made it so easy to create your own monsters in 13th Age, we had to make the creatures in this book truly amazing; so we designed cool and unexpected mechanics for each creature that bring something truly new to the game, and story options that can serve as the starting point for a single adventure or an entire campaign.

In this 240-page book you’ll discover:

The macabre lich aristocrats of the Undying Peerage

The shadow dragon, which baits greedy adventurers with cursed treasure

The twygzogs, a genuinely weird new player character race of fungaloids

The intellect devourer, which can slip undetected into the party after eating someone’s brain … and be transformed by the experience to join the side of the heroes

…and many more!

And here's that teaser I mentioned...

A Storm is Coming...

~~~~~
For those who recognize that die, yes, something really cool is going to be announced at Gen Con this year.

Another full weekend for Yours Truly. Tonight, a new session of Prowlers & Paragons: The Ultimate Edition, in my Modern Gods setting. Tomorrow, the Colorado Irish Festival with dear friends, and Sunday (which was supposed to be the continuation of our Birthright D&D 5e campaign, but we're missing too many players) is "Unknown Gaming Afoot at Teh Ebil Bunneh's House."

I recognize the Possibility Die, I still have mine!
SW: Torg could be cool, but if Shane says "No", it's no.
So we can keep guessing, and I too am betting it's Torg related.
Let the Storm Knights rise again!

Just another edition of TORG would be nice, but I wouldn't call it "hobby-changing."

What about these four guesses:

A) WotC has made an agreement to release a D&D 5E TORG, as a way to establish a world-hopping tradition which can tie all the D&D worlds together into a multi-genre campaign, like Monte Cook's "The Strange."
B) Paizo is releasing a Pathfinder TORG, for the same reason.
C) Green Ronin is releasing a Fantasy Age TORG, for the same reason.
D) Evil Hat is releasing a FATE TORG, for the same reason.

Reviews

Wizards of the Coast is promoting Ghosts of Saltmarsh as an adventure book with a setting and rule supplements so since I already did a spoiler-free review of the book overall, let's take a closer look at the adventures it contains. While I avoid significant spoilers, be aware that broad information about each adventure is mentioned.

The Shadowrun Sixth World Beginner Box due for release at Origins this June will be our first look at the new edition of the now 30-year-old Shadowrun game system. This new edition promises to be a more streamlined experience for new players while still satisfying veterans, but does it live up to that promise?

Ghosts of Saltmarsh will make Greyhawk fans happy without losing newer D&D 5th Edition players. Billed as a supplement for nautical adventures, it's a mix of new rules for ships and sea travel, adventures and supplemental material for any coastal campaign.

Sequels can be a tricky thing to handle, especially when they promise a darker, edgier tone. Despite its much gloomier tone, however, Things from the Flood manages to avoid difficult-second-album syndrome with a game that neatly blends weird sci-fi mysteries and teenage drama, though sometimes it’s hard to tell which aspect is the most dangerous and unsettling.

Gangs kill and terrorize Victory City overwhelming law and order. Super villains run amok. Become a vigilante and strike back using violence to fight violence in the dark setting nicknamed Vigilante City.